Measure for Measure Act 2
by Burnout'83
Summary: Young Connor faces his most heroic challenge yet: He must return Cameron's beloved pet to her in the year 2034 evading some of the highest security known to mankind, and his future self. Will Future Cameron be pleased to see him? Wickedly off-beat AU.


_Perhaps just a little more harmless torment, how could a female terminator resist?_

The front curtains were open . Warm sunlight was streaming in and Sarah Connor listened to the local moms talking and the voices of their small children playing out in the dusty road at the front of the house. At the back of the house Sarah had left the kitchen window open on the latch and she could faintly hear the birds singing in the bushes and trees .

Sarah stretched out and flicked though the home shopping catalogues. She sighed and ran her hand over the new cover on the sofa, twirling the tassels around the edges of her new cushions between her fingers . Admittedly the fabric was covering Kevlar reinforcement for the sofa , but it was clean and it smelled new ,and, she liked the pattern on it. The new matching cushion set that came free with the cover which gave her somewhere to conceal her Glock when she was relaxing. Sarah even had a matching rug to put her feet on. She wasn't expecting John and Cameron home from school for at least another ten minutes so she decided to make the most of it.

Sarah's tranquility was shattered by the sound of her new six- piece set of Teflon coated pans clattering across the kitchen floor. She grabbed the Glock as her finely tuned reflexes launched her upright and onto her feet. She slipped off the safety and began stalking towards the kitchen to investigate. When she reached the kitchen door she leaned forward and listened .

Something was definitely clambering around and scratching in there. A tap had started running and there was a kind of slurping noise. When the slurping ended and the tap stopped running there was a slight bump and Sarah could make out the sound of something cautiously picking its way through the scattered pans heading across the floor towards her.

Things went quiet for a moment then there was a loud scratching at the mat behind the door. The scratching stopped and Sarah's eyes widened as the handle slowly turned and the door sprung open a couple of inches. Sarah trained her weapon on the epicentre of the activity bracing herself , breathing as quietly as she could.

What happened next isn't easily quantifiable by human cognition . A paw appeared and quickly fished around from the other side of the door. When it got a hold, the door flung back and before Sarah could react an object shot over her shoulder so fast its movements blurred in the air like fleeting shadows. Sarah ducked ,and spun around in the terminal direction of its trajectory,dropping to one knee to take aim .

To her amazement she found a pair of bright green eyes calmly staring right back at her her,inches away from the Glock's muzzle . They belonged to a large leopard-spotted bobcat which was sitting at eye level with her, its nose bang between the foresight of her weapon. Sarah couldn't help noticing. it had a scar running over the top of it's nose and part of its left ear was missing . The cat did nothing for a few seconds except gaze directly into Sarah's eyes.

As if it had somehow ascertained Sarah wouldn't shoot ,with a flick of its tail the bobcat got to its feet and sprang up onto the sofa where rolled on its back , wriggled about and began nuzzling the top of its head and whiskery cheeks into Sarah's new covers. When it had finished nuzzling and rubbing it lay on its side purring loudly to itself . The bobcat was about two and a half feet long and it had a short stripy tipped tail

Very slowly Sarah stood up and backed towards the wall . The bobcat didn't seem in the slightest bit intimidated by her presence. It closed long-lashed eyelids and opened them again in a slow contented cat blink . A very sharp, slightly hooked front incisor poked out from under its whiskers, and if Sarah hadn't know any better, she'd have sworn the animal was smiling at her. She very carefully reached for her cell and punched in the emergency code.

"Cameron," Sarah whispered, "there's a freaking bobcat chewing my new sofa covers."

Sarah glanced at the ceiling and hissed out a louder forced whisper, "that's right I said a b.o.c.a.t."

She shook her head in exasperation, her voice hardened to dangerously polite ,"NO it doesn't have a collar, I don't know its name, and NO I haven't tried to shoot it yet because there's kids in the street. Look, can you and John get back and help me get this thing outta my house?"

"Okaaay" , Sarah scowled, imitating Cameron's cheery voice after she'd ended the call.

Oblivious to Sarah's presence the bobcat rolled on it's back stretched its legs and examined them as if it was waiting for nail varnish to dry on its front claws. It appeared utterly content bathing in the pool of warm sunlight , as well as playfully chewing the tassels at the edges of Sarah's new cushions.

After a few minutes entertaining itself the bobcat curled up and fell asleep.

. ***

Cameron stuck her head around the door and walked very slowly and quietly into the living room . She held her hand out gesturing for Sarah to lower her gun . John edged around the walls and went to stand next to Sarah.

when the bobcat's tail flicked and it opened one eye Sarah trained the Glock on its head . To Sarah's surprise, Cameron's face lit up, she smiled brilliantly and held out her arms and yelled "Dinger!"

The cat leapt of the chair, bounded towards Cameron and jumped up into her arms wrapping both its forelegs over her shoulders. It burried its face into her neck and appeared to be biting her shoulder. After a while the bobcat pushed back and started licking Cameron's face. The animal was purring loudly. Cameron unpicked one of its claws which had got tangled in the fabric of her sweater and gently placed the animal down onto the floor. When it wa ssitting down in front of her Cameron folded her arms and glared the cat . It went down on it's hunches and flattened its ears. Cameron spoke to it in a very stern voice."Dinger, exactly what are you doing here? Does General John know where you are?"

Cat tilted its head to the side in very teminatorish way and flicked its short tail. It seemed to be listening to every word Cameron was saying.

Cameron frowned and tapped a finger to her lips "So, you haven't, like, bitten one of the time displacement technicians or anything like that to get here have you?

Cameron knelt down in front of it like innocent child talking to her pet. It was obvious she was in her own little zone ,smiling stroking its head and seeming for all the world like she was going to pull a piece of string out of her pocket and start playing .

"Er Cameron ,what' exactly is, er ,going on here?"asked John.

"This is my future-cat. She's called Dinger," Cameron replied brightly and proudly. She scratched behind its part- missing ear, " there baby, you 're all confussed about your time coordinates are aren't you"

"Con-fussed?" Sarah mouthed to John . John shook his head.

Cameron flashed a smile over to John ,"you can stroke her if you like, she's so totally cute isn't she?"

Cameron got to her feet and went to tidy up the pans in the kitchen . "We can walk her on a lead, and tomorrow we could go to the pet store in Red and buy her a new collar and some toys ." Cameron breezily called over her shoulder.

John exchanged glances with Sarah who clearly didn't know what the hell was happening either . Sarah put away her Glock and stood in the doorway to the kitchen with her forehead resting against the door frame. John slipped by her, and went to stand next to Cameron at the sink .Dinger followed John through padding alongside him. When Sarah glanced up from the bobcat she noticed both teenagers were looking at somehting out of the kitchen window .

John turned around and rested his back as casually as he could against the drainer . (Now, if you are Sarah Connor then you know with surefire certainty when John Connor is trying to block your view out of a kitchen window don't you .) Sarah suspiciously took a step forward.

"Kirsty's not around is she? "John asked casually as Sarah got nearer.

"Nope." Sarah shook her head .

"Is Mr Sanderson in on the other side ?"

"No, it's Friday , Sanderson comes back at five-thirty on a Friday ."

John shifted uncomfortably and looked her in the eyes , "Mom, so did you, er notice anything unusual out on the shed roof earlier?

"My shed roof ?" Sarah frowned.

"Yeah, you know, the shed the yard ."

"No,there wasn't anything unusual last time I looked."

When Sarah got nearer, Dinger scrabbled and pushed its way behind John and Cameron's legs so she was pressed up against the cupboard doors under the sink.

"Dinger only wanted to bring you a present,"said Cameron in a weak voice,trying to diffuse the inevitable situation.

Sarah probably didn't hear the bit about Dinger's present. She put hand to her mouth " What the hell... I don't freaking believe it. John! "

There was a large grey rubber rodent, about the size of a pig on top of her shed . The grey rubber rodent was attached to a panel of sheet metal. The panel was painted metallic blue and its edges were torn and jagged from where it had been ripped off the roof and side of the van, which (presumably) it had previously been attached to . Sarah could make out a section of white lettering that read :

. . . XTERMINATORS

PEST CONR.. .

' Why me, huh? You know, all the other billions of humans beings on this planet ..." Sarah started to say .

"I think it's meant to be like a big mouse . You know, for advertising," said John, unhelpfully, trying to distract Sarah from the developing rant.

Cameron pulled a very fierce face and wagged a finger at Dinger "Bad cat !" . She put her hands on her hip and leaned forwards. " Dinger this is a totally new directive,okay: No more bringing any 'presents' home k for Sarah unless she asks you , or bringing anything else into Sarah's backyard. .Now you go and say 'I'm very sorry Sarah', to Sarah."

Warily Dinger padded across the floor and brushed its sides and butted its head apologetically into Sarah's legs .Sarah kept her hands well up in the air out of reach and smiled a real frosty smile. She pointed down at the cat as she spoke " Cameron, now this is just a wild guess okay, but that's not a normal cat is it?

Cameron shrugged and looked at the lino . "Maybe she's not."

Sarah folded her arms and pulled her leg away from Dinger who had been gently prodding Sarah's thigh with her extended claws trying to get Sarah's attention ." That's a terminator bobcat ,right , and first , I've got you staying, here, and now I've got one freaking big terminator bobcat in my house. You know, this is just great ."

"She's really good with children and she likes being walked on a lead and she understands every word you say ..." Cameron started to try to explain but she realized from Sarah's hardening expression Sarah was maybe a only couple of degrees from going into total meltdown. Wisely Cameron gave it up.

"You two," Sarah's gaze skewered both of them in the eyes in turn , " you just go and get that plastic rat offa of my shed roof and hide it somewhere for now okay...We'll talk about this later ."

As the two teenagers set off to remove the artificial rodent from Sarah's shed roof . Sarah snatched her hand up and held it in the air . A raspy tongue was tyring to lick between her fingers.

_To be continued._


End file.
